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Journalism of Courage
At the request of the prosecution, the Delhi High Court on Monday adjourned Sharjeel Imam’s plea to quash a supplementary chargesheet accusing him of waging war against the state and promoting enmity over a 2019 speech at Jamia Millia Islamia, even as it noted the prosecution had not appeared before the court on the “last 4-5 occasions”.
The case stems from an FIR lodged at the New Friends Colony police station following an incident of rioting at the central university and Mata Mandir Marg on December 15, 2019. Imam was arrested in the case on February 17, 2021.
Additionally an FIR was registered at the interstate cell of the Crime Branch on January 25, 2020, against Imam for having delivered two speeches during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act—including the one at Jamia on December 13, 2019—under Indian Penal Code sections 124A (waging war against the state), 153A (promoting communal enmity) and other offences.
Despite the latter FIR, Imam was booked for the same offences in a supplementary chargesheet filed in relation to the 2019 FIR. He has argued in his petition that there cannot be multiple proceedings on the same incident against a person.
“For the last 4-5 occasions he (prosecutor) is not present,” Justice Manoj Ohri remarked orally while posting the matter for consideration on February 28, 2025.
Meanwhile, Justice Ohri clarified that the trial court was at liberty to proceed with the framing of charges in the case. “If charges are framed, then what?… There is no stay, the trial would proceed… If the trial court comes to a conclusion that enough material is there, then it will frame charges,” he remarked.
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